PsiQuantum announced the establishment of its UK-based advanced R&D centre at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Daresbury Laboratory in Northwest England. PsiQuantum has gained access to one of Europe’s largest liquid-helium cryogenic reactors with an approximate temperature of -270°C, thanks to £9 million in financing from the UK government’s Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT).
PsiQuantum has collaborated with the STFC’s Daresbury Laboratory to create the next generation of high-power cryogenic modules required to scale photonic quantum computers to millions of qubits. To build improved cryogenic systems, PsiQuantum will collaborate with Daresbury Laboratory experts in large-scale cryogenic infrastructure.
This collaboration will produce quantum computing subsystems with the most cryogenic cooling power yet deployed, marking a significant step toward large-scale quantum computers capable of tackling commercially relevant issues.
Single Light Particles for Error-Correcting Quantum Computer
PsiQuantum is developing an error-corrected quantum computer that uses the quantum mechanical features of single light particles (photons) with significantly less stringent cooling requirements than others. The cryogenic cooling required by PsiQuantum’s technique is required to run extraordinarily sensitive single-photon detectors, which are utilized to read the state of the photonic qubit.
These gadgets work at temperatures only a few degrees above absolute zero or at the temperature of deep space. Although the working temperature is frigid, it is hundreds of times higher than the milli-Kelvin temperatures required by many other quantum computing methods, avoiding the enormous problem of establishing large-scale milli-Kelvin dilution refrigeration.
Collaboration with STFC’s Daresbury Laboratory will more than double PsiQuantum’s cryogenic capabilities, with single cryogenic modules capable of delivering 100W of cooling power at liquid-helium temperatures. This added cooling power would allow PsiQuantum to implement power-hungry features necessary for scaling-up quantum computers, such as chip-to-chip networking and integrated control electronics, in addition to supporting larger arrays of quantum chips.